I like Mao's as well. I liked the newer costume and newer expression, in that I always like Mao wearing something bright and light, smiling like an angel and skating airy-fairy. According to an interview, they wanted to change the concept to a young lady first debuting at a ball. But why use the same program that they used for a different concept then? The program looks almost exactly the same. I wish Mao reuses her last year's gala, SP, or any of Chopin pieces.

I also watched Yuna's FP practice. She's got really interesting music. I think that both programs fit Yuna very well. Perhaps she could have skated a bit heavier one for FP for a change because it gives a slightly similar impression with the SP, but this LP music is not bad. Good music and I like it.

"She has to get better; it's only the first competition. She'll figure it out," he said.

"This time of year, judges are a bit more conservative with their component marks. At worlds, we were in the eight's for all of them. This was fine; I don't want them too high now. We'll get better as we go along."

So he doesn't think the score was "too high" already? OK, I guess that's what a coach is supposed to say... Anyway, I hope Yuna won't peak too soon or overtrain or anything. Better to deliver the goods when it counts most!

Extremely happy for Yuna. Totally blown away by her performance. I actually don't like 007 movies and hated the idea of Yuna playing a Bond girl, but her performance had totally turned me around She looked seductive, confident, shining, and dominant. I think I'd love to go see a Bond movie if the heroine can look as brilliant as Yuna. I think the 007 medley may become my favorite Yuna's SP.

On the other hand, very worried about Mao. It's still early in the season, but it seems something isn't right for her. I hope she solves her problems soon. For a great olympic season to take place, we need fierce competition! Please Mao, make it happen...you can do it

Still consider Yukari's long sleeves very distracting. Distracting to the point that I almost couldn't concentrate on enjoying her performance. I want to cut them off with a pair of scissors...

Good luck to all the ladies tonight! Look forward to the LPs
(ETA: Especially to Carolina K! I really want to see a more or less clean performance from her. At the very least I hope she can deliver her LP better than her SP.)

I think that Yu-na as a competitor is frankly more like Plushenko than Irina. Yes Yu-na has a tendency to make mistakes in the free, although so did Plushenko for a lot of his career.

The thing with Plushenko is he simply always just did his technical elements and allowed himself to dominate other skaters by doing consistent things like 4/3s and triple axels. We never saw Plushenko say oh I have a big lead maybe I won't do a quad. Or hey, I'm going to get higher PCS than my competition so why not just do a 3/3 instead of a 4/3.

In contrast, Irina had a tendency to skate conservatively. She was capable of big combinations but in a lot of cases she'd never even attempt them. I mean in 2002/2006 Olympics she never attempted a 3/3. And this is a skater who I believed even landed a 3/3/3 early that year.

In contrast, while Yu-na may leave out her triple loop. We never see Yu-na saying oh I have a 10 point lead, maybe I won't do my double axel/3toe and my 3flip/3toe. Or, I get huge PCS maybe I should just do a 3/2 in the short. Even when Kim is injured, she still goes for these big combinations.

I think that Irina's illness and also her perhaps thinking she could rely on her PCS did Irina in.

Oh, this is much better skated than at GW. I like this look on her. And I thought she paid much more attention to choreographic details this time around than she usually does. She didn't seem too happy with her score, but then she didn't do a 3-3 here as she does in her best SP's. At least she didn't get beaten by Alexe on PCS, but rather by TES. And the difference between 3Z and 3R would've accounted for a good part of that. I think maybe Caroline's COE spiral wasn't held long enough in the second half, which might have made her spiral seq. level 1 again...

Just now catching up on the IN on-demand video from my slow hotel connection.

Alexe Gilles has really improved since last season! Especially in her speed, and also a bit in her posture. She got a little sloppy in places, but that shouldget smoothed out as the season progresses. All jumps were great, they should've all gotten +GOE. I think between the 1 pt extra base value and the GOE differences, she must have gained 4-5 points on Caroline for the jumps. But then she probably lost some on the spins, base in base value and GOE's. Somehow, though, I think it'd be easier for her to improve on her spins than for Caroline to improve on her jumps...

Whether she can hold the lead in the LP is the big question. Alexe is likely to improve on her PB (87.36), but it would be a major leap for her just to break 100, whereas anything less than 110 will be disappointing for Caroline even without the 3-3.

Is it me or does Yukari look stiffer than in the past? I really don't like the things hanging out of her fingers. What are they supposed to be?! I have this urge to pull them off so that we can see her lovely hands. She gets some wicked speed on that camel-donut. Wow!

Carolina, my goodness, what a disaster of a SP skate. As bad as a season opener as ever. And that dress... She really needs a new dress designer, the cut is way too low.

I think that Yu-na as a competitor is frankly more like Plushenko than Irina. Yes Yu-na has a tendency to make mistakes in the free, although so did Plushenko for a lot of his career.

The thing with Plushenko is he simply always just did his technical elements and allowed himself to dominate other skaters by doing consistent things like 4/3s and triple axels. We never saw Plushenko say oh I have a big lead maybe I won't do a quad. Or hey, I'm going to get higher PCS than my competition so why not just do a 3/3 instead of a 4/3.

In contrast, Irina had a tendency to skate conservatively. She was capable of big combinations but in a lot of cases she'd never even attempt them. I mean in 2002/2006 Olympics she never attempted a 3/3. And this is a skater who I believed even landed a 3/3/3 early that year.

In contrast, while Yu-na may leave out her triple loop. We never see Yu-na saying oh I have a 10 point lead, maybe I won't do my double axel/3toe and my 3flip/3toe. Or, I get huge PCS maybe I should just do a 3/2 in the short. Even when Kim is injured, she still goes for these big combinations.

I think that Irina's illness and also her perhaps thinking she could rely on her PCS did Irina in.

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment about Irina skating conservatively... perhaps arguably at the Olympics, OK.. but so do most of the best of them, i.e. Kwan, even PLushenko himself not technically but in terms of expression when he won in `06... and we don`t know yet how YuNa is going to handle the actual moment at the Olympics (though, being still quite young, and seemingly well-coached, I'd wager she'll go for it)

Back to Irina... I don,t have the memory for specific examples, but in the early and mid-parts of her career at least (i.e. her 1st comeback) she always stood out for me as the main top female competitor who would throw everything in she could, making up for something if she missed... maybe not consistently the 3/3, but it was a different era as well, she wasn`t thinking about maxing out points, per se. That doesn't make her conservative IMO, as she was generally always thinking on her feet. And maybe her 3/3 was not as consistent for her as was Plushy`s quad, or YuNa`s 3flip/3toe. In later parts of her career I wouldn't doubt that her illness changed things a bit, the focus instead shifting to getting through what she could do well... but that is pretty understandable.

Still, if Yu-Na reminds you more of Plushenko because of consistently going for the hard combination, I do understand your point.

I just watched Yuna's SP on Youtube and I must say that I find it incredible how the little young girl who was always looking so worried and hardly ever smiled, developed into such a charming young lady.

She's still crawling... Just painfully slow... The choreography has absolutely no connection with the horredous music cut.

I saw a lot more speed from her, especially on the TV. On Youtube she still looks a little slow. I thought the chreo was great, but I agree that the music cuts could be better.

But who else agrees that Masquerade Waltz sounded much better as a SP? It did not sound so repetitive. But it does not exactly sound like a innocent young girl at her first ball. There are so many fluffy, light waltzes if that is the theme they were going for.

Just listening to the sounds, Yuna's music sounds really like a guy. I didn't imagine that this type of music could be so cute. Perhaps the fact that Yuna being very skinny, fragile-looking young woman creates a suprising effect that makes the program more intriguing. This reminds me of a fashion column stating that women who are soft and femine actually look better wearing something hard and women with a more masculine face look nicer with something feminine and delicate. The basic idea is to betray your first impression, making you look less easy to understand.
At the same time, Yuna does have powerful, almost masculine skating so that the music does not overpower her.